Kansas City Chiefs: Jamaal Charles’ Historic Day in Oakland

December 15, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles (25) celebrates after scoring a 71-yard touchdown during the third quarter against the Oakland Raiders at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

So, Jamaal Charles is decent at football.

Charles caught four touchdowns and rushed for one more in Kansas City’s 56-31 blowout win over Oakland. After the game Charles said this about his performances.

"“A big part of this team depends on me,” Charles said. “Once I’m healthy this offense can go a long way and this team can go a long way.”"

Wait, a five-touchdown, 215-yard day is Charles not healthy? Holy crap.

Imagine if Charles was healthy Sunday afternoon. Only eight times in the history of football has a player amassed at least 200 yards from scrimmage and scored at least five touchdowns, which is what Charles did yesterday against the Raiders. This list of occurrences are sorted by date below.

What is unique about Charles’ performance compared to the six other running backs on the list is that four of Charles five touchdowns were of the receiving variety. Only Gale Sayers (KANSAS!) and Billy Cannon had multiple receiving touchdowns in their big days. In fact, Charles becomes the 33rd player ever to have four touchdown receptions in a game, and just the sixth player ever to have at least 195 yards receiving and four touchdown receptions.

We’re talking some pretty good names on the four receiving touchdowns list, too.

Hall of Famers Jerry Rice, Kellen Winslow (MIZZOU!), Lance Alworth, Mike Ditka, Bob Hayes, and Paul Warfield are on the list. And one could assume Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, and, maybe, Issac Bruce will be in Canton sometime soon, too.

Eric Decker had four touchdown receptions, but screw Eric Decker.

The list of players to have five touchdowns in a game isn’t very long either. Only 11 players to be exact.

There are four Hall of Famers on this list – Sayers, Rice, Winslow, and Paul Hornung – and only five players in the last 25 years. It is interesting that only six players have scored five or more touchdowns in a game since 1966, which incidentally is when the AFL and NFL merged.

It’ll be interesting to see if Charles builds a Hall of Fame case for himself in the next few years.

According to Pro-Football Reference, Charles is one of only three players to rush for at least five yards per carry with a minimum of 1,000 attempts. The other two players, Jim Brown and Joe Perry, are each enshrined in Canton. Jamaal is going to have to boost his touchdown totals, however, has he has only 43 career touchdowns compared to Brown’s 126 and Perry’s 84.

Charles is also going to have stiff competition whenever he becomes eligible. Adrian Peterson is a lock for Canton, and players like Marshawn Lynch, LeSean McCoy, and Ray Rice are going siphon votes, too.

Still, the opportunity is there. He turns 27 in 11 days, so he’s still young enough to have a few more great seasons in him, and he has a coach that loves to get him the ball. The chance for a Hall of Fame career is very possible if Charles continues to have performances like Sunday’s.